Archive for the ‘MCACN’ tag

The Buick Riviera that hit the market on October 4, 1962, wasn’t quite the car that GM stylist Bill Mitchell had in mind when he penned a design for a personal luxury coupe, originally intended as a possible revival car for GM’s shuttered La Salle brand. Looking for something with both a bit more style and a bit more sport, Mitchell pulled an early Riviera from the assembly line, then shipped the car off to Detroit’s Creative Industries for a bit of modification. The resulting show car, dubbed the Buick Riviera Silver Arrow I, became Mitchell’s personal transportation when it wasn’t on the show circuit, and now the one-of-a-kind coupe will make an appearance at the upcoming Muscle Car and Corvette Nationals.

Starting with a production Riviera (reportedly built on the model’s very first day of assembly), Creative Industries lowered the roof by two inches, then lengthened the hood and front fenders. As the original design of the Riviera called for hidden headlamps (which wouldn’t appear on the car until the 1965 design update), Mitchell instructed the shop to include this feature on the show car. Rather than using a cover operated via vacuum or electric motor, Creative Industries mounted the headlamps behind translucent lenses on the front fenders, relocating the parking lights and directional signals below the front bumper. Though the function of the 1965 Riviera’s front lighting would differ, the appearance of the car’s front end would be strikingly similar to the Silver Arrow I show car.

Under the hood, the Silver Arrow I made do with the Riviera’s 401-cu.in. V-8, rated at 325 horsepower and shifting through Buick’s Turbine Drive automatic transmission. Given the show car’s comparable size and weight to the production Riviera, that should have enabled a 0-60 MPH run in around 8.1 seconds, with a quarter-mile time in the neighborhood of 16 seconds. No changes were made to the Riviera’s wheelbase, suspension or brakes, as upping the show car’s handling prowess was never on the list of requirements delivered by Mitchell.

Mitchell’s inspiration for the original design was said to come from a Rolls-Royce emerging from a London fog. The coupe envisioned by Mitchell would have the Rolls-Royce’s stately presence, but with the sporty lines of a Ferrari grand tourer, blending the best of both worlds. This is exemplified in the removable wheel discs used on the Silver Arrow I; in place, they give the Silver Arrow I an air of luxury, but removed, they highlight the car’s track-themed wire wheels. A further nod to sports cars of the day can be seen in the Silver Arrow’s bullet-shaped side mirrors, finished in matching paint instead of the more formal chrome plating. Inside, the show car used silver leather upholstery and trim as one more reminder that, though production-car based, this was not a Buick one could take delivery of at the local dealership.

The Silver Arrow’s long and low shape pays a bit of homage to Harley Earl, although Mitchell broke from many of his former boss’s styling cues (oversize fins and abundant chrome, for example) when he took over as vice president of GM’s Styling Section. Though not as well known as other GM show cars and concepts, the Buick Riviera Silver Arrow I did have a direct impact on the styling of later models, and likely remains a more accurate interpretation of Mitchell’s Ford Thunderbird-fighting La Salle coupe.

Now owned by Flint, Michigan’s, Sloan Museum, the Silver Arrow I will join other vehicles in the “The Class of ’63” display at the Muscle Car and Corvette Nationals November 23 and 24 in Rosemont, Illinois. For additional information, visit MCACN.com.

Pre-restoration: Only the astute would notice the Toronado wheels. Photos by Jeff Koch, unless otherwise noted.

It’s human nature to want what we can’t have. While those weaned on a steady diet of front-engine, rear-wheel-drive cars lament the proliferation of front-wheel drive, there was a time when front-drive was seen as potentially advantageous in a performance car. To test this theory, George Hurst commissioned the build of a special 1968 Oldsmobile 4-4-2, one fitted with the larger V-8 and front-wheel drive of the Oldsmobile Toronado. Now in restored form, the car will make its show debut at the upcoming Muscle Car and Corvette Nationals.

Even for a company with Hurst’s seemingly limitless resources, stuffing the Toronado’s drivetrain into the 4-4-2’s engine bay proved a daunting task. If the project were successful, the net result would be a muscle car that still weighed in the neighborhood of 3,450 pounds, but produced slightly more than 375 horsepower, compared to the 4-4-2’s base output of 350 horsepower. Though 25 horsepower may not seem significant, the addition of 55 cubic inches in displacement would also net a gain of 70 pound-feet of torque. Better yet, Hurst rationalized, the weight of the engine and transmission would be over the drive wheels, which (discounting the physics of weight transfer) should produce better traction for launches.

Or the Toronado’s finned brake drums.

The project utilized a shortened Toronado frame, cut to join the 4-4-2’s frame just shy of the car’s rear axle. To fit the Toronado’s 455-cu.in. V-8, chain drive and transmission where the 4-4-2’s 400-cu.in. V-8 used to reside, Hurst stretched the wheelbase 2.5 inches, to a total of 114.5 inches. Because the project would do away with the 4-4-2’s driveshaft, rear differential and longitudinal transmission, Hurst cut out the car’s center tunnel and replaced it with flat steel sheeting, adding quite a bit of interior room in the process (a selling point of front-wheel-drive cars that remains to this day).

Compared to the 4-4-2, the Toronado used an extra 12 inches in hood length, meaning that the 455 V-8 and drivetrain would be an extremely tight fit beneath the 4-4-2’s fenders. Even with the larger V-8 positioned as close to the 4-4-2’s modified firewall as possible, the stock radiator and air conditioning core had to be moved forward to make room. Although the Toronado’s engine is slightly offset to the passenger side, the left exhaust manifold had to be cut and re-welded to clear the steering post, while the right exhaust manifold had to be customized to make room for the air conditioning compressor. Though period reports don’t specify the exact engine output, the 455-cu.in. V-8 did benefit from a forced-air intake and blueprinting by Hurst staffers, meaning that the Toronado’s original 375 horsepower and 510 pound-feet of torque would have been conservative estimates.

The 455-cu.in. V-8 doesn’t leave much excess room in the engine bay.

Out back, the 4-4-2 lost its unneeded rear differential, replaced by the Toronado’s tube axle and a hybrid combination of Toronado and 4-4-2 suspension components. Instead of the Toronado’s dual shock absorber and leaf spring rear suspension, the car used coil springs, shocks and control links, adapted by Hurst to fit the unconventional installation. As the car’s weight distribution was now radically different from what Oldsmobile engineers had intended, a brake proportioning valve had to be added to prevent rear brake lockup. Even this wasn’t enough to solve brake hop under heavy braking, so the Hurst engineers played with the control arm pivot points until the car was manageable.

The March 1968 issue of Super Stock magazine describes the front-drive 4-4-2 as, “…superior to either a Toronado or to a 4-4-2. More performance, more traction, improved cornering, better handling, added maneuverability, everything.” Those are some bold claims, particularly when they’re not backed up by any kind of performance measurements, and it’s likely that comparable (or, perhaps, even more impressive) results could have been obtained by a few simple improvements to the 4-4-2’s stock 400-cu.in. V-8 and stock suspension.

The car’s history between 1968 and 1970 remains a mystery, but in 1970 Bill Hess purchased the car from Guy Martin Oldsmobile in California. It had been dressed up a bit, with a black hood stripe and black pinstriping, but otherwise was identical to the car covered by Super Stock in 1968. Hess and his family held onto the car for 42 years, reluctant to sell the one-of-a-kind Oldsmobile to someone who would simply flip the car for a profit. Following last year’s MCACN, Hess received a call from Oldsmobile collector Fred Mandrick, and shortly after the two struck a deal. The restoration began as soon as the car arrived at Mandrick’s shop, and in less than a year he’s managed to go through the engine and transmission (which, oddly, is fitted with 3.54:1 final gearing), restore the interior (which remains mostly original, except for a few pieces of brightwork and the driver’s seat bottom), repaint the body (in its original monochrome gold) and repaint the frame.

For an engineering exercise built by a third-party company (albeit one with strong GM ties) in just 45 days, Mandrick sums it up as, “well done, but not done well.” Scraps of the car’s original headliner, replaced by Hurst during its 1968 build, were found beneath the carpeting, and a body bushing was missing from one side, allowing the body to rub on the frame. The stretched front fenders, lengthened to accommodate the car’s stretched wheelbase, still carried the donor car’s black paint inside. Mandrick corrected these minor flaws during his restoration, and the end product represents the build that George Hurst, perhaps with Oldsmobile influence, had envisioned 45 years earlier.

Mandrick will unveil his unique 4-4-2 November 23, at the Muscle Car and Corvette Nationals show in Rosemont, Illinois. For more information on the show, visit MCACN.com, and keep your eyes peeled for an in-depth article on the 4-4-2 in an upcoming issue of Hemmings Muscle Machines.